I try my best to keep up to date on any vidcasts that Full Moon puts out, however, Charles Band seems to do them a bit sporadically, so I sometimes miss them. In his March vidcast, Charles Band mentioned that Full Moon was going to be premiering SubSpecies 5 BloodRise at the Alamo Drafthouse on May 15th only, so I decided that it was something that I wanted to check out.
The Alamo Drafthouse in Houston, Texas, runs a “Graveyard Shift” film club, which I usually attend for special events. Full Moon Features had a merchandise table at the front of the theater, which had movie posters, some Blu-rays, and a raffle for a Puppet Master Leech Woman doll. Check out the intro video below:
Without revealing any spoilers for the SubSpecies 5 BloodRise review, it’s not really necessary to have watched the other four SubSpecies films that exist. This film is a prequel and explains the origin of Radu the Vampire, as well as a couple of other characters. The film sets are really elaborate and shooting the film in Serbia definitely added to the sense that the film had, with castles and dungeons. Some of the acting and dialog were a tad bit distracting and awkward, and we didn’t get to see an origin of the SubSpecies that I had hoped for, but we did get a lot of blood and vampire attacks. The look of the film was amazing.
At the end of the film, we were shown a “behind the scenes” featurette, much like Full Moon produced during the VideoZone days of the Home Video period. It was cool to hear from the actors, see the raw sets, and hear what things were like on set.
Overall, I thought that SubSpecies 5 BloodRise was not too bad. It was definitely low budget, had a few scenes that were distracting, and dragged on a little bit, but it’s definitely one of the best releases that Full Moon Features has put out in a really long time. The sets and atmosphere really added to the feel of the film and it was obvious that a lot of love and labor made it all possible. I like the SubSpecies franchise, so I’m hoping that the film is lucrative enough for Full Moon Features that they’ll continue this format. That being said, I would probably just wait until the movie hits the pre-paid or free streaming sites like Shudder or Tubi. Otherwise, catch it at a festival or convention for a group watch.
Check out the trailer for SubSpecies 5 BloodRise below:
